White-Wilson: From home practice to the ‘community’s choice’

Published: Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 07:07 PM.

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Editor’s note: This is the ninth in a series of stories profiling local business people who have captured the American Dream and whose success extends well beyond Northwest Florida.

FORT WALTON BEACH — In 1946, Dr. Henry White opened the city’s first doctor’s office on the first floor of his two-story home on Brooks Street.

Since those early days when White performed surgery, delivered babies and acted as a primary care physician, the medical practice that bares his name has grown into a medical landmark in the community and one of the largest employers in Okaloosa County, whose network of more than 50 physicians see more than 250,000 patient visits a year.

For many people, that would be the definition of the American Dream.

“We are the largest independent multispecialty practice between Pensacola and Jacksonville,” said Alan Gieseman, chief operating officer of White-Wilson Medical Center. “That is particularly significant because the population isn’t very high, so you have a significant penetration rate.

“If you go to Central Florida, for example, there are several multispecialty practices that have more than 100 physicians in each, but the population is so big that they don’t have the same influence that we do,” Gieseman added.

He said White-Wilson continues to grow, and he expects the medical center to have another 60 years ahead of it.

“Our commitment at White-Wilson is to be the community’s choice,” Gieseman said. “We’ve made a commitment over the years to bring in quality physicians, and we will continue to do that. That’s why we make the investment in the equipment and the investment in the facilities. Our challenge is to grow appropriately enough to meet the needs of our patients.”

Early growth

White, who graduated Tulane University’s medical school in 1939, operated his doctor’s office on his own until early 1950s. His small clinic included hospital beds, an X-ray machine, a lab and a surgical area.

“Back then, a doctor worked until there were no patients left to see,” White said in a 1984 interview with the then Playground Daily News. “My office hours were from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. After that, I’d start making my house calls, which often ran well into the night. In the old days, people were born at home and they wanted to die at home. They did their best to avoid clinics and hospitals.”

However, to meet increased demand from more patients, White brought in Dr. Joseph Wilson, an old friend from his medical school days, to be his partner in 1952. They formed White-Wilson Clinic.

Their clinic continued to grow throughout the decade. In February 1957, the first physician not named White or Wilson joined the staff when Dr. William Thompson was hired.

“They were very different types of people,” said Thompson, who is 91 and retired. “Dr. Wilson’s complaint of Dr. White was that he went in eccentric and concentric types of circles and finally came up with the right diagnosis but had no idea how he did it. Dr. White’s complaint of Dr. Wilson was that he would jump to a conclusion, but darn he wasn’t right 90 percent of the time without going through the gyrations.”

Thompson and Wilson would disagree from time to time to the point that Wilson wanted to have Thompson removed from the practice. However, White had to go along with it.

Wilson voted to remove Thompson while White voted to keep him in. A third party was brought in to break the tie and voted to keep Thompson at White-Wilson.

“To me, (Thompson) was as important as White or Wilson,” said Dr. Doug Rigby, a pediatrician and president of the board for the medical center. “It should have been the White-Wilson-Thompson Clinic, but that’s another story.”

Additional doctors and specialists were brought in and the practice continued to expand. The clinic moved to a larger building on Hospital Road in 1960, but even outgrew that fairly quickly.

A new, nearly 45,000-square-foot facility on Mar Walt Drive was built to meet the growing needs pf Fort Walton Beach Medical Center, which opened in 1977.

Trying times

In February 1986, White decided to take a one-year leave of absence from the medical center. He passed away two months later.

Wilson retired in September 1990 and passed away in April 1995.

In 1989, a group of physicians got together and purchased White-Wilson Medical Center.

Since then, White-Wilson has been privately held by the physicians themselves. About 80 percent of the more than 50 physicians at White-Wilson are shareholders, and Gieseman said the intent is for all of them to become shareholders.

“We don’t focus on the financial side here,” Gieseman said. “What we want to do is be able to achieve a certain economy of scale so that we can remain independent.”

Doctors are hired through an associate contract. After their contract expires, they can become shareholders of the medical center.

PhyCor Inc., a Nashville-based management company that also operated a clinic in Pensacola, was brought in to help manage White-Wilson in 1997.

Doctors were disappointed with how PhyCor was running the company to the point that some of them left. Many of the senior physicians at PhyCor’s Pensacola clinic eventually left the firm, and there was concern that White-Wilson might have to close or cut back its operations.

A group of physicians got together and bought out the management company in March of 2000.

“We had to go through some significant tough times to terminate our affiliation, but we got it done once PhyCor understood that there was no other option,” Rigby wrote in an email.

“The practice of medicine hasn’t changed. The business of medicine has changed dramatically” added Dr. Karl Metz, a gynecologist medical director at White-Wilson. “Doctors are traditionally not good business people because they’ve spent their lives learning to practice medicine. Medicine is as much an art as it is a science, and one of the redeeming things working with an organization like this is that we have great physicians who know their art and know how to practice their medicine. We have great leaders who run our business.”

Looking ahead

White-Wilson Medical Center has more than 50 physicians in 20 specialties. It was the first organization in the area to have its own MRI machine and CT scanner.

White-Wilson has grown substantially over the years and continues to do so. Last year, it purchased two new facilities on Mar Walt Drive near its main campus. One of them houses the medical center’s orthopedics, physical therapy and dermatology practices, and the other building soon will house its ophthalmology practice.

“We anticipate expanding to more sites,” Gieseman said. “We feel we have the responsibility to meet (the community’s needs) as their needs change. We’re investing heavily in new facilities. We have on the drawing boards some expansion plans for some other facilities. That’s real important to us.”

White-Wilson also has expanded beyond Fort Walton Beach. It opened an office in Destin in 1983. That was followed by a Bluewater Bay office in 1999.

Since opening the main building on Mar Walt Drive in 1977, White-Wilson’s footprint has grown from 44,866 square feet to 133,290 square feet.

The medical center continues to make other improvements. Last year, it underwent a lengthy process of digitizing more than 12 million pieces of paper to update patient records to an electronic system that allows all doctors to gain quicker access to patients’ medical information.

“We don’t wait until we have to do something,” said Dr. Gregory Piacente, a neurologist and medical director at White-Wilson. “We’re trying to come up with a strategy for the future, whether it’s electronic medical records or just looking at where medicine is going. We all know five years from now it’s going to be a whole different animal, but we don’t want to change the basic element that we’re patient-oriented. How it gets delivered, how it we plan for that, that’s pretty tough for any practice to plan for and be viable in the future.”

Thompson said Drs. White and Wilson would probably have differing opinions on the evolution of the medical center.

“Dr. White would be supportive 100 percent of the time,” Thompson said. “Dr. Wilson could be counted on every once in a while to do something he thought was to his own interest. He’s the only guy I ever knew who could be walking in a certain direction telling a certain tale, turn around 180 degrees and walk back the other way spouting something else and convince you that’s what he was doing in the first place.”

Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.

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Editor’s note: This is the ninth in a series of stories profiling local business people who have captured the American Dream and whose success extends well beyond Northwest Florida.

FORT WALTON BEACH — In 1946, Dr. Henry White opened the city’s first doctor’s office on the first floor of his two-story home on Brooks Street.

Since those early days when White performed surgery, delivered babies and acted as a primary care physician, the medical practice that bares his name has grown into a medical landmark in the community and one of the largest employers in Okaloosa County, whose network of more than 50 physicians see more than 250,000 patient visits a year.

For many people, that would be the definition of the American Dream.

“We are the largest independent multispecialty practice between Pensacola and Jacksonville,” said Alan Gieseman, chief operating officer of White-Wilson Medical Center. “That is particularly significant because the population isn’t very high, so you have a significant penetration rate.

“If you go to Central Florida, for example, there are several multispecialty practices that have more than 100 physicians in each, but the population is so big that they don’t have the same influence that we do,” Gieseman added.

He said White-Wilson continues to grow, and he expects the medical center to have another 60 years ahead of it.

“Our commitment at White-Wilson is to be the community’s choice,” Gieseman said. “We’ve made a commitment over the years to bring in quality physicians, and we will continue to do that. That’s why we make the investment in the equipment and the investment in the facilities. Our challenge is to grow appropriately enough to meet the needs of our patients.”

Early growth

White, who graduated Tulane University’s medical school in 1939, operated his doctor’s office on his own until early 1950s. His small clinic included hospital beds, an X-ray machine, a lab and a surgical area.

“Back then, a doctor worked until there were no patients left to see,” White said in a 1984 interview with the then Playground Daily News. “My office hours were from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. After that, I’d start making my house calls, which often ran well into the night. In the old days, people were born at home and they wanted to die at home. They did their best to avoid clinics and hospitals.”

However, to meet increased demand from more patients, White brought in Dr. Joseph Wilson, an old friend from his medical school days, to be his partner in 1952. They formed White-Wilson Clinic.

Their clinic continued to grow throughout the decade. In February 1957, the first physician not named White or Wilson joined the staff when Dr. William Thompson was hired.

“They were very different types of people,” said Thompson, who is 91 and retired. “Dr. Wilson’s complaint of Dr. White was that he went in eccentric and concentric types of circles and finally came up with the right diagnosis but had no idea how he did it. Dr. White’s complaint of Dr. Wilson was that he would jump to a conclusion, but darn he wasn’t right 90 percent of the time without going through the gyrations.”

Thompson and Wilson would disagree from time to time to the point that Wilson wanted to have Thompson removed from the practice. However, White had to go along with it.

Wilson voted to remove Thompson while White voted to keep him in. A third party was brought in to break the tie and voted to keep Thompson at White-Wilson.

“To me, (Thompson) was as important as White or Wilson,” said Dr. Doug Rigby, a pediatrician and president of the board for the medical center. “It should have been the White-Wilson-Thompson Clinic, but that’s another story.”

Additional doctors and specialists were brought in and the practice continued to expand. The clinic moved to a larger building on Hospital Road in 1960, but even outgrew that fairly quickly.

A new, nearly 45,000-square-foot facility on Mar Walt Drive was built to meet the growing needs pf Fort Walton Beach Medical Center, which opened in 1977.

Trying times

In February 1986, White decided to take a one-year leave of absence from the medical center. He passed away two months later.

Wilson retired in September 1990 and passed away in April 1995.

In 1989, a group of physicians got together and purchased White-Wilson Medical Center.

Since then, White-Wilson has been privately held by the physicians themselves. About 80 percent of the more than 50 physicians at White-Wilson are shareholders, and Gieseman said the intent is for all of them to become shareholders.

“We don’t focus on the financial side here,” Gieseman said. “What we want to do is be able to achieve a certain economy of scale so that we can remain independent.”

Doctors are hired through an associate contract. After their contract expires, they can become shareholders of the medical center.

PhyCor Inc., a Nashville-based management company that also operated a clinic in Pensacola, was brought in to help manage White-Wilson in 1997.

Doctors were disappointed with how PhyCor was running the company to the point that some of them left. Many of the senior physicians at PhyCor’s Pensacola clinic eventually left the firm, and there was concern that White-Wilson might have to close or cut back its operations.

A group of physicians got together and bought out the management company in March of 2000.

“We had to go through some significant tough times to terminate our affiliation, but we got it done once PhyCor understood that there was no other option,” Rigby wrote in an email.

“The practice of medicine hasn’t changed. The business of medicine has changed dramatically” added Dr. Karl Metz, a gynecologist medical director at White-Wilson. “Doctors are traditionally not good business people because they’ve spent their lives learning to practice medicine. Medicine is as much an art as it is a science, and one of the redeeming things working with an organization like this is that we have great physicians who know their art and know how to practice their medicine. We have great leaders who run our business.”

Looking ahead

White-Wilson Medical Center has more than 50 physicians in 20 specialties. It was the first organization in the area to have its own MRI machine and CT scanner.

White-Wilson has grown substantially over the years and continues to do so. Last year, it purchased two new facilities on Mar Walt Drive near its main campus. One of them houses the medical center’s orthopedics, physical therapy and dermatology practices, and the other building soon will house its ophthalmology practice.

“We anticipate expanding to more sites,” Gieseman said. “We feel we have the responsibility to meet (the community’s needs) as their needs change. We’re investing heavily in new facilities. We have on the drawing boards some expansion plans for some other facilities. That’s real important to us.”

White-Wilson also has expanded beyond Fort Walton Beach. It opened an office in Destin in 1983. That was followed by a Bluewater Bay office in 1999.

Since opening the main building on Mar Walt Drive in 1977, White-Wilson’s footprint has grown from 44,866 square feet to 133,290 square feet.

The medical center continues to make other improvements. Last year, it underwent a lengthy process of digitizing more than 12 million pieces of paper to update patient records to an electronic system that allows all doctors to gain quicker access to patients’ medical information.

“We don’t wait until we have to do something,” said Dr. Gregory Piacente, a neurologist and medical director at White-Wilson. “We’re trying to come up with a strategy for the future, whether it’s electronic medical records or just looking at where medicine is going. We all know five years from now it’s going to be a whole different animal, but we don’t want to change the basic element that we’re patient-oriented. How it gets delivered, how it we plan for that, that’s pretty tough for any practice to plan for and be viable in the future.”

Thompson said Drs. White and Wilson would probably have differing opinions on the evolution of the medical center.

“Dr. White would be supportive 100 percent of the time,” Thompson said. “Dr. Wilson could be counted on every once in a while to do something he thought was to his own interest. He’s the only guy I ever knew who could be walking in a certain direction telling a certain tale, turn around 180 degrees and walk back the other way spouting something else and convince you that’s what he was doing in the first place.”

Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.